Kiln shell replacement procedures
he shell is the driving force behind many of the problems that arise in a kiln and these problems are typically caused by, what are commonly referred to as doglegs and hotspots. Sometimes hotspots are the root cause of a dogleg and other times they are not. Shell irregularities, be it ‘out-of-roundness’ or a crack in the shell, precipitate a wide variety of issues. All of these issues have detrimental effects on the ancillary equipment. They range from cyclically loading rolls and frames causing hot bearings or frame failures, wobble in tyres leading to convex tyres and concave rolls resulting in difficult thrust adjustments and variations in drive loading causing poor gear set contact and other drive equipment issues.
The kiln shell replacement process can be broken down into the following steps: layout, removal, installation, alignment and welding.